To: The Dallas Morning News
Date: November 3, 1999
Subject: Movies in the old days
Result: Not printed due to limited space

Dear Editor,

I had already been going to write a response to one of Steve Blow's columns a while back to add something to it, when I saw today that he addressed that same thing I was going to add, which was about how fast kids grow up these days. I'll go ahead now and say what I had intended to say.

The original column I wanted to respond to was the one that Mr. Blow wrote about being nostalgic about various things that he grew up with in his and my youth. The thing I wanted to say that I am nostalgic about and regret the demise of is G-rated movies.

When Mr. Blow and I were children in the fifties and early sixties, all movies were G-rated. Even if a movie had an adult theme that would have been very boring to a kid, at least we could go with our parents and not be subjected to all the crud that is everywhere you look these days - with much of it originating in movies.

These days, even movies that could have easily been G-rated to make a good movie have to have a substantial amount of R-rated and "PG-13" elements, just on principle I guess. Meanwhile, kids know everything there is to know, just about, by the time they reach the first grade.

I went to a party recently where there were adults and children aged 7 and 8, and they put the movie "Something About Mary" on the big screen t.v. in the living room. Like Mr. Blow at the movie he wrote about today, I kept feeling very bad about the children seeing a movie that was full of all kinds of sexual jokes and situations and vulgar references to body parts - and to me that's preferable to some of the scenes of graphic violence I've seen many times just on broadcast television. I expressed concern to two of the parents there, and both said, "Oh, it's okay, they're not paying attention to it" - even as their children were sitting there glued to the set.

Somehow I'm glad that I was totally unaware of sex at least until I was 13, and even then my understanding was pretty hazy. That just seems better to me.

As for Cameron Diaz, the star of "Something About Mary", couldn't a nice, clean and wholesome way be found to showcase her charms and talent?

Thank you, John Vehon